Man implicated in church murder of stepmother freed

WESTERN BUREAU:

JAVAN GARWOOD, who police investigators had accused of hatching the plot to murder his stepmother, former banker Andrea Lowe-Garwood, was freed in the Trelawny Circuit Court yesterday.

Lowe-Garwood was shot dead as she worshipped at the Agape Christian Fellowship Church in Falmouth, Trelawny, on January 31, 2021.

The Crown, represented by prosecutor Claudette Thompson, was relying on circumstantial evidence, digital reproduction of telephone conversations and evidence from Dwight Bingham, who pleaded guilty to firing the fatal shots that killed Lowe-Garwood.

However, Bingham refused to give evidence against Garwood.

“The digital evidence has been scrambled making it impossible to be used, and several efforts up to last night to get Bingham to talk has failed,” Thompson told the court.

“These factors have caused us to fail to prove that Javan is guilty, so we offer no further evidence in the matter against Mr Garwood.”

At the time Lowe-Garwood was killed --shot in her head four times by a man who came into her church and sat behind her and waited calmly until she stood up to pray before opening fire -- she was reportedly locked in a contentious issue with relatives of her late husband, who reportedly died leaving substantial properties behind.

It was widely believed that Bingham, who reportedly claimed he was paid J$700,000 to carry out the murder, would have testified against his co-accused, Garwood, especially after he pleaded guilty to his role in the crime.

However, to the disappointment of the prosecution, he kept his mouth shut.

After the prosecution told the court it had no further evidence against Garwood, Chief Justice Bryan Sykes, who presided over the case, instructed the foreman of the seven-man panel of jurors to return a verdict of not guilty, which allowed Garwood to walk away a free man.

“You are not to bring any form of emotions to this case. Your judgment and conclusion must be based on the evidence which you hear in court,” Sykes explained to the jurors.

“The Crown has offered no further evidence on the charges against Mr Garwood,” Sykes continued. “This means you will have to arrive at a not-guilty verdict.”

In the case that lasted for four days, the court heard evidence from four witnesses, including Leon Hines, who drove the getaway car from the murder scene. He had previously pleaded guilty to his part in the crime and was sentenced to six years in prison.

After Garwood was freed, Khadine Coleman, who represented him, told The Gleaner she was not surprised by the verdict based on the evidence that was presented against her client.

“There was no evidence that implicated my client in any accessory before the fact to murder, or murder. The Crown had to concede that point,” said Coleman. “There was nothing there and the unfortunate thing is that he (Garwood) has spent more than two years in custody which he cannot get back.”

Speaking with The Gleaner after the verdict, Director of Public Prosecutions Paula Llewellyn said there was evidence that showed some amount of suspicion, but “we needed to go a little bit further, we needed a little bit more to be able to pass the threshold of the no-case”.

Based on his guilty pleas, Bingham is scheduled to return to court on July 25 for sentencing.